Dozens of countries have decentralized at least part of their natural resource policies over the last two decades. Despite the length of time that these policy experiments have been in force, there is little agreement about their effectiveness. We argue that part of this ambivalence stems from three limitations of extant studies, suggesting that…

School education in Australia is a complex interplay between federal and state governments, and between government and non-government schools. This article explores the supervision of schools in Australia through school accountability systems. Utilising publicly available documents a systematic analysis of the state and territory systems for…

Objective: Organizational learning, underpinned by evidence-based health care, and greater user involvement in planning and delivery were key objectives of the NHS Plan. Evaluation, and specifically participatory evaluation, offers the potential to address these elements of the NHS modernization agenda. We discuss the strengths and limitations of…

Until the recent introduction of a dynamic interview-based process, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian development research funding agency, faced a challenge: project completion reports (PCRs) were not being completed in a timely and quality manner. This is a common problem many organizations face in completing…

This issue of "The Link" newsletter contains the following articles: (1) Evidence-Based Practice: Developing a New Business Model from the Inside Out (Jeremy Kohomban, Paul Schiller, and Patricia O'Gorman); (2) The School to Prison Pipeline and Criminalizing Youth: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives (Marsha Weissman); (3) Group Homes Appear…

This 2010 Annual Report for the Missouri Department of Higher Education takes a close look at the performance of Missouri's system of postsecondary education in Fiscal Year 2010. The annual report follows the format of the state's public agenda for higher education, "Imperatives for Change: Building a Higher Education System for the 21st…

This report presents a model of collaborative effort that established a network of 15 university-based and 2 non-university based Centers for Environmental Education (CEE) in the Tennessee River watershed region. The report begins by establishing definitions for a Center for Environmental Education and a network system, both of which are…

A study analyzed past and present United States initiatives for promoting equal employment opportunity and wage equality for women. It was determined that, during the past 20 years, the United States Government has established the legal procedures to combat inequities in educational opportunities and employment-related practices. While these…

Designed to assist colleges, school boards, and other educational institutions to offer awareness-oriented courses and workshops to both the general public and educational personnel, this package of resource materials describes print and nonprint materials relating to the needs of disabled adults. Outlined are issues and questions for discussion…

If early childhood systems are to be effective at the population level then they must be able to provide family-centered care to all the racial, ethnic and cultural groups that they serve. Despite major policy driven and technological advances in healthcare, health disparities across different races and ethnicities persist. For example, the infant…

This report outlines the national and state environmental context for the SECCS Initiative in supporting MCH strategic planning in early childhood systems building. This strategic context has implications for roles, relationships, and activities within a planning process and ultimately an implementation process. It summarizes the opportunities and…

State governors have an immense stake in building a workforce training and education system capable of producing the skilled workers needed to secure the country's economic future. In doing so, states must face the following challenges: (1) many state workforce systems do not reflect market needs; (2) public education is falling short in preparing…

To address the skills shortages stemming from the transition to a more technological and skills-intensive economy, Congress established a program whereby funds from H-1B visa fees would provide seed funds for private companies, labor, and government to join together in creating training alliances focused on skills in short supply. Unfortunately,…

The focus of the Forum's eleventh Study Group report is assessing what it will take for the state to respond to the court's findings in the decade-old Leandro lawsuit, a suit that challenged, among other things, the constitutionality of the state's current system of financing schools. The essence of the court's ruling is that: The state, as judged…

In the more than 10 years since the inception of EPA's (Environmental Protection Agency) Brownfields Program, brownfields have been redefined. Properties that were shunned or eyed warily by those with the resources to transform them are now viewed as dormant opportunities for economic and environmental rebirth. Communities that suffered aesthetic…